What does the term 'false positives' refer to in authentication systems?

What does the term 'false positives' refer to in authentication systems?

• A. Incorrectly denying a valid user
• B. Incorrectly identifying an unauthorized user as authorized
• C. Correctly identifying an authorized user
• D. Failing to log authentication events

Answer: (B)

In authentication, a false positive is when the system grants access to someone who should not be allowed in. This happens when an unauthorized user is treated as authorized, effectively a false accept. It’s the situation you’d warn about if attackers or ineligible users slip past the checks. The opposite scenarios are false negatives (denying access to someone who is actually authorized), which is not what false positives describe, and a correct identification of an authorized user. There can also be separate concerns like logging failures, which don’t define whether access was properly granted or denied. In practice, systems balance thresholds: making authentication more permissive reduces false negatives but increases false positives, while tightening checks lowers false positives at the risk of more legitimate users being rejected.

In authentication, a false positive is when the system grants access to someone who should not be allowed in. This happens when an unauthorized user is treated as authorized, effectively a false accept. It’s the situation you’d warn about if attackers or ineligible users slip past the checks. The opposite scenarios are false negatives (denying access to someone who is actually authorized), which is not what false positives describe, and a correct identification of an authorized user. There can also be separate concerns like logging failures, which don’t define whether access was properly granted or denied. In practice, systems balance thresholds: making authentication more permissive reduces false negatives but increases false positives, while tightening checks lowers false positives at the risk of more legitimate users being rejected.